Hippocampal – Avoidance Brain Irradiation (HA-RT)

 

“My mission is to give our patients the best cancer outcomes possible – that is not just controlling the disease but keeping our patients active, normal and healthy as possible.”

 

“I was delighted when I heard about hippocampal-avoidance radiation therapy (known as HA-RT), and I brought it to our practice,” says Sidd Padmanabha, a radiation oncologist at EJGH.

 

 

The hippocampus is a portion of the brain that plays an important role in learning, relational memory, and emotion. The hippocampus helps code and retrieve our memories, something known as long-term potentiation. It has been shown that sparing the hippocampus from radiation improves patient-reported outcomes – that is, patients feel better. HA-RT also has been shown to improve neurocognitive outcomes.

 

I have patients who would benefit from brain radiation about are concerned about side-effects. This is a way to get the job done but help people maintain their quality of life.

 

 

“There are important cancer guidelines known as the NCCN Guidelines. There is one version for patients and another version for health care providers. I recommend to my patients that – if they wish – they review these. I’d be happy to walk any of my patients or their family members through these.”

Hippocampal-avoidance RT (HA-RT) is supported by the NCCN Guidelines. These Guidelines support HA-RT for “patients with a better prognosis”. I am passionate about incorporating this into the care of my patients when it is appropriate.

 

 

“We have an excellent team at EJGH. We also have a special radiation machine known as Tomotherapy, which is perfect for shaping and sculpting the radiation into complex shapes. I incorporate images for your MR brain, and created a personalized radiation plan for you. The picture above is somewhat technical but I’d be happy to go over this for anyone who is interested.

 

I would like to thank our partners in radiology and neuroradiology, and our excellent physicists and dosimetrists for making this possible. It would not be possible to provide the level of care that I strive for without their help.

 

If you or anyone you know has any questions about this, please do not hesitate to reach out to his. We can be reached at Ask Us.

← Blog

Request an Appointment